The service was short, the interment brief, and a simple marker stone set in the furthest corner of the crowded graveyard was all there was to say that that day a child had been buried. Scarcely a week went by when a local infant wasn’t interred by Anne’s father, or these days more likely by Mr. Nicholls. And yet Anne hadn’t wept so hard standing by an open grave since they had buried her father’s curate William Weightman almost three years ago now. That day she had done her best to hide her tears, afraid that her sisters would see how she wept to watch a man she had never had a hope of and yet had hoped for lowered into the ground. The sorrow was of a different nature, but just as intense.

They hadn’t expected any more mourners, save themselves and Liston, and yet just before her father had begun to speak, a fine carriage drawn by six beautiful black horses pulled up, and the coachman, a tall, top-hatted gentleman, handed down a fine lady wearing a feathered black bonnet, the veil drawn down over her face. However, Anne and her sisters did not need to see the woman’s face to know that Lady Hartley herself had seen fit to attend the interment.

“Such a fine woman,” Charlotte whispered as Lady Hartley took her place amongst the small collection of mourners, standing beside Mr. Nicholls with her head bowed. “To go out of her way to be here, at the burial of a forgotten child. One can tell she is so much more than merely a title and money. She is a woman of immense character and decency.”

“It does indeed show a kind of humanity,” Anne had conceded, “for her to trouble herself with what so many in her position might consider inconsequential.”

As Papa had begun to speak, the snow had fallen, like a soft embrace, cradling the child and bearing him away to a place of peace at last.

After it was done, Anne put her gloved hand on Emily’s, as Mr. Nicholls escorted Lady Hartley in their direction.

“She cannot come into our house,” Charlotte whispered, “not on this day, when it looks only one step above a pauper’s hovel.”

“It is our home, and I love it more than I could any castle,” Emily said. “However, I agree. I do not wish for another person in our house today.”